You know how when you have a party you do all kinds of cleaning to get ready? Maybe you tackle a couple of projects around the house that you’ve been putting off, just so things look super nice when your guests arrive? That’s what we were doing through the end of last week — cleaning, sprucing up the yard, putting things away. Yesterday we had a little BBQ with my husband’s family to celebrate a couple of birthdays. It was small and lovely and just the motivation we needed to pull the house together. As I walk around this morning, I find myself motivated by how nice and tidy everything looks; I would really love to keep the house Party Ready for as long as possible.

If you’re one of my legions of followers, you might have noticed that I’ve been pretty absent lately. Here’s why:

First, I traveled to California over the Fourth of July to spend the holiday with my family.

Party Scene

My brothers and I, floating.

Once I got back from that…well….I simply lost some focus. That quickly turned in to planning for the next little trip, which was up north with Miss Sunshine to spend a few totally radical days with my BFF and her little girl.

Miss Sunshine to the right, Little Bear to the left.

THEN, once we were back from that, I became involved in Camping Prep Craziness, 2009. This past Friday my little family unit went up to Little Pond in the Catskills to rough it for a few nights. It was pretty fabulous, save having to set up camp in a torrential downpour and having the baby adopt some pretty wonky sleeping behaviors both nights.

Camp Breakfast

On top of it all I have been trying to fit in some sewing and stocking of the shop.

This one isn't yet named -- any suggestions?

Sugar Plum

Now I’m back, feeling recharged, facing a few quiet weeks before my next trip back to CA. I hope to find for you some pretty Awesome Items in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Sorry for the lack of Awesome Items these past couple of days! I am in California with my parents and my brothers and am focusing on family. We travel back to NY on Monday, so watch out for the next goodie on Tuesday. Until then, have a fabulous holiday weekend!

Take a pause for just one minute on this lovely Monday morning to check out today’s totally awesome item – a felt and linen apple tree WITH…so rad…a felt basket of felt apples!!! This Tree of the Wind Apple Tree from Intres would make the most charming centerpiece or mantle decoration. And while the small parts might not be the best for my uber-curious 9 month old right now, I can imagine this to be a pretty sweet part of a child’s make-believe world. Snag these and one of her Princess Towers to create and entire scene. Learn more about Intres here.

I learned something new today: The difference between gouache and water color. Many thanks to Kathy of Kathy Panton Illustration for introducing this new word with me. Thanks, also, for sharing such beautiful paintings, especially this one: Falling. I love the bright colors, the composition, and that it makes me think of magical rainfall or a stunning flowering tree.

It’s kind of timely that I stumbled across this last night, because there’s a sale going on and you just must take advantage of it. Natalie of nataJane crochets up the most beautiful little items — scarves, hats, and these awesome little wrist bags called Mollys. I can totally imagine running out the door with this little gem tossed over my arm.

You should take advantage of her 40% off sale. She’s not going away for good, just clearing up to make room for some new items coming down the pipe (I can only imagine how pretty the new stuff is going to be!!). It’s not a difficult shop to browse around – the photography is beautiful and the look so clean and pretty.

Long ago my brothers and I came up with an idea to make super candid greeting cards. We got as far as coming up with the phrasing and my little brother was going to draw some simple illustrations for them. And then that idea went nowhere because I never found the number for Hallmark.

My love for clever notes, though, has lived on, and these charming Exclamation Cards from Amanda at Twee Cards are just too sweet and awesome to pass up. I love them.

Got my latest zipper order in today and just had to give praise to Jennie from zipit on Etsy. She is a pleasure to work with, the zippers are strong, the color selection is great, prices are reasonable, and shipping was super fast. It doesn’t hurt that they’re fun to look at all bunched up together.

1. I got a bit of a sunburn today on my cheeks and lips. This a good thing. Know why? Because it means it was warm and sunny enough to sit outside long enough to get a bit of color. We sat outside for a long time, actually. I love this.

2. Weekends are a good time to relax. I got so caught up during the week with the shop and statistics and sales and whats-its that it was nice to just stop a bit and not do much of anything.

3. We had tacos today as a late lunch with visiting family. In this house, and as it was when I was growing up, when we make tacos we fry up our own shells out of corn or flour tortillas. Tonight I took two of those shells that were left over, piled ’em with leftover ground beef and cheese, and toasted them in the oven. Then I smeared it all with guacamole, sprinkled on a bit of salt, and enjoyed an awesome more-than-a-taco snack. Di-Vine.

It suddenly hit me today that I’ll never go through the “first kid” stuff again. Won’t have to figure out how to go on an errand with a new baby….that kind of stuff. I will someday, hopefully, have to figure all of that stuff out with TWO kids – a new ballgame, I’m sure. But still…everything with the first one is so new and unknown.

A few days ago my new Little Fancy Pants diaper arrived. Leah was kind enough to give me a testers discount even though she already had enough testers.

This diaper is currently one of my favorites. It’s fit is trim and we are on some of the smallest-size snaps — so there is room to grow. The fabric is soft and super comfy. It did leave some red marks around her thighs, but I don’t know if that’s avoidable when any kind of elastic is used. I don’t think it was anything more than just some pressure marks, but I’ll keep my eye on it as we continue to use it more. As far as absorbency goes, it fits the bill. Even when wet the fabric soaker feels “dry”. I have been using covers with it because we’re still wearing pants in the cool weather. As it warms up, though, I can easily imagine letting Sunny run around in this without any cover at all.

Sunny was starting to have some issues STAYING asleep for naps and at night — I would nurse her down, but when it came to the dreaded crib transfer, more often that not she would wake a bit and start to cry, which invariably evolved into healthy sobs and screams. Nothing would calm her down, not even holding her, except for putting her back on the boob.

I also sensed that her cries were becoming more deliberate – that she had picked up on the cause/effect cycle of her squawking and me coming to pick her up and eventually nurse her.

SO…a couple friends of mine, both of whom I highly respect as parents, had been through the same thing. They had both successfully put their babes through “baby boot camp” and one of them recommended the following book:

This book helped.

Night one: Took Sunny 38 minutes to fall asleep on her own.

Night two: 30 minutes

Night three: 4 minutes

Night four, tonight: 30 seconds

We. Are. Psyched. And I think Sunny is, too. She knows the routine, knows how to peacefully go to sleep. She sleeps all night and is happy in the morning.

It is hard starting a blog. In fact, it is hard starting anything new — once the excitement and novelty wears off one really has to ask themselves WHY they started the project in the first place and if it’s really someting they’d like to continue.

My answer to all of that is “yes, I’d like to keep this blog going.”

Why:

1. If I focus on Sunny then my family and friends can stay up to date on how she’s doin’.

2. If I include updates abouts my etsy shop – AwesomeAsAOne.etsy.com – then it can serve as a vehicle to keep people checking out the shop. Which isn’t up yet, by the way.

3. I can talk about my adventures in cloth diapering, which might help others who are thinking about trying it out!